


Passed Past

by FlockPack



Series: Passed Past [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, RIORDAN Rick - Works
Genre: And Shippy, Aphrodite Is Over-Excited, Aphrodite Ships It, Aphrodite ships it all, Dionysus Cares But Refuses To Show It, F/F, F/M, Gen, Hestia Finally Had Enough, Inspired By The Books On Olympus Series By JustAFellowUser, M/M, Read The Short Stories, Read the books, Sad Start
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2019-10-13 02:24:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17479433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlockPack/pseuds/FlockPack
Summary: It had been centuries since the death of our heroes, and Hestia was mad.The gods had been ignoring their existance, their sacrifice, for too long, and it was pushing her family apart. They won't ever be able to move on if they don't talk about it. But of course she won't say a thing.But wine makes people let loose, and show their true emotions.It was time to make a change.-Athena thought this was the dumbest plan she's ever heard of. But just because it wasn't a wise idea, didn't mean it wasn't going to work. She would help, for her dear Annabeth's memory.-Nemesis thought the gods were getting too up themselves. She KNEW the demigods deserved better, despite their arrogance.-Hades was used to death, but Nico's was the first he couldn't move on from. He would prove to the current campers his children weren't cold-hearted monsters.-The past will not be forgotten again.The people who passed will never be forgotten again.





	1. A Plan Set In Motion

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Book Cult](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14343558) by [JustAFellowUser](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAFellowUser/pseuds/JustAFellowUser). 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like all my stories, anyone may adopt these at any point. I will continue to write them, but I will gladly admit others are better at writing. I don’t care about credit for the ideas, I just ask to be sent a link so I may read fanfictions that are alternate from, based on, have similar plotlines, or rewritten versions of my stories.
> 
> This will have HUGE spoilers for Rick Riordan's stories.
> 
> When I was writing this, I was intending for it to be Hades’ idea to change things, but the story by JustAFellowUser made me change my idea halfway through:
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/series/1242194
> 
> Because Nemesis would be the one who would do something like this.
> 
> However, I will not dedicate this work to this amazing author unless they ask me to, for the simple fact that if mine gets taken down, I don't want the site to go "Hey, it was inspired by that one, let's take that one down as well."
> 
> I will however inform the author of my story's presence, so they can choose if they want me to link them in via "Associations" as well.

  **(HESTIA POV)**

She sat where she always did when visiting camp, by the fire, prodding embers with a stick. Only a few had ever paid her attention when she was here, and only two had ever recognized her.

Perseus Jackson.

Nico di Angelo.

She jabbed her stick a little harder than was necessary.

“Hey kid, if you want to keep the fire going, I suggest you get out of the way with all that blubbering before you put it out.”

She forced her eyes to look human before glancing up to see who said that. It was an Ares kid, arms folded. He tried his best to look intimidating, but she could see the concern in his eyes.

Why was he…?

Oh, it seemed she was crying.

Quickly wiping her eyes, she gave him a smile to say that she was alright, before going back to her embers. He stayed for a short while, to make sure she wouldn’t start crying again, but like usual, left.

The kid reminded her of a male version of Clarisse La Rue.

She supposed she had to talk to Ares soon. Perhaps… no.

Another war would be dangerous, she shouldn’t ask him for that favour.

But another war would be progressive.

As much as she hated to admit it… War is what sparked some of humanity’s greatest inventions. Once it was over, it made life so much better for the small creatures. And when it had something to do with demigods… it changed the world. But in peace… people forgot. And after enough centuries… gods forgot too.

“Auntie H.”

Well, most of them. She turned around to face her nephew, and smiled at him. Dionysus wasn’t nearly as grumpy as he used to be when younger. Hera had finally convinced Zeus that he was going to become mortal or sick if taken away from alcohol for too long, so he was allowed one glass of wine a night, just not when around campers. Hestia found it amusing that immediately after punishment of being a camp director was over, he went straight back to that wood nymph. Each and every time, Zeus made him look after the demigods once more

“Hello, Dionysus. Would you like to sit by the embers with me?”

“No. But I would like to know why you are crying. One of Ares’ brats came to the big house to report it, but Chiron was out. So, I was going to let someone else deal with it, until they said where you were. It’s not like you to draw attention to yourself.”

Hestia was silent for a while. “They’re gone…”

She watched as a shadow passed over his features. “They were mortals, of course they would die. You shouldn’t be so surprised about it.”

“It wouldn’t be as hard if they remembered.”

Dionysus was silent.

“You used to be mortal once, Dionysus. Was your memory truly that horrible?”

“You must remember that it has been generations since the last one died. To the next generation, their parents’ struggles wouldn’t seem that amazing. And they weren’t told everything. The next generation were told less, and cared less.”

“But they still hear stories of Hercules, and he is even further back than them!”

“Because he was immortalized.”

“Apollo was immortal too!”

He took a deep intake of breath, and she wished she could take back her words.

“I’m sorry, that was uncalled for. I am the quiet one, I shouldn’t-”

“Speak your mind?” He countered. “You have been quiet for too long, Hestia. Meek, timid. You’ve been going around making sure the rest of us are happy, so we stay together as a family. But you aren’t happy, are you?”

“… No.”

“I thought not. After the brats have all passed out for the night, come to the big house. I believe it is time for you to tell all of us how you truly feel.”

He stood up and left.

Sighing, she waited, doing what he said once everyone was asleep. Dionysus, Chiron, Argus, and Seymore were in the meeting room, waiting for her. Argus was feeding Seymore sausages. She carefully sat down. Chiron was the first to speak.

“Some others are coming, but if you would like to talk before they come, Lady Hestia, there will be no objections.”

“I can wait. Who is coming?”

**(HADES POV)**

Hearing footsteps, he waved his hand, sitting up straighter in his throne before pausing.

The footsteps were confident, but soft. Someone who knew where they were going, wasn’t scared, but not the type to clomp around.

His dear Persephone.

He waved his hand once more, and his throne turned back into an office chair, his writing desk pulling up in front of him. He didn’t need to put up an air of authority for his wife, she didn’t care that he had to do more paperwork than the other gods. He knew of some goddesses who would leave him the second they found out he didn’t just sit in his throne looking imposing every second of the day.

Of course, once she walked in, he immediately waved his desk away once more, rushing to her side as he wiped her tears, demanding to know what was wrong.

“My lord, I wish to have a day in the surface world. In return, I shall stay a day longer in the underworld this year.”

He could never deny her what she wanted. “But of course. First, however, what has made you into this state?”

“I was having a walk…” He translated that to ‘playing with Cerberus’, “And I took note of who was in line, waiting to be judged… Thalia’s dead.”

He felt his heart sink. “Send Artemis my well-wishes.”

Persephone nodded, and disappeared.

Slowly making his way back to his throne, he sat down, closing his eyes tightly. The last of Nico’s friends was gone, he didn’t know if he could continue the paperwork today.

**(HERMES POV)**

“Yes?” he asked in a tired tone, taking his phone off vibrate.

He was expecting George and Martha to start talking non-stop. He wasn’t expecting his ringtone to start up.

It wasn’t often he got phone calls, and not orders via emails or texts.

Of course, it was someone calling to ask him to deliver a message, but it was one that couldn’t be put off. And when it was Dionysus calling, asking not to procrastinate, it must have been actually important, and not something that will be pouted about if a day or two late.

And so, he collected everyone. Hades was in the underworld, but strangely, Persephone wasn’t. She was with Artemis, who luckily was on the list as well. He didn’t expect Hades to come along, but something had happened earlier to put him off his work. Ariadne was happy to get an excuse to spend time with her husband. Aphrodite was hard to get away from Ares, but it eventually worked. Nemesis… she was a challenge, but soon, they all sat in Camp Half-Blood’s big house, watching as Dionysus stood up, opening his mouth.

“How many eons has it been, since the titan war? Since the giant war? And how much has humanity progressed? More importantly, how much have the Olympians progressed? The answer is we haven’t. Everyone called here has been hurt by the lack of changes, but I don’t care about that, so Hestia shall be the one to talk today, since she does.”

I turned to my Aunt as everyone voiced their surprise. Dionysus sat down, but she didn’t stand up.

“I am smarter than everyone seems to think I am, and I am more observant. If it were a normal day, I would ask you what you thought of a topic. But today isn’t normal. So, I am going to tell you what I see, so no-one can lie.” She paused. “Nemesis, you are upset by the way the world is changing. You have been since the gods revealed their existence to the mortals once more. You are glad you are being worshipped again, sure, but at what cost? The demigod heroes have become lazy, complacent. They might still fight for their lives, but they have no idea what the olden days were like. How hard it was for them. And the gods have just become more and more powerful the more they are worshipped. Enough that they have pretended to forgotten that they wouldn’t even be alive if not for a certain group of demigods.”

I couldn’t help but flinch, but I wasn’t the only one. Hestia continued, aware of our pain, but… for once, choosing to let her own show instead, to overshadow ours.

“Things have gone back to how they were. But in the beginning, children new to the camp would be told that they are chosen immediately because of Percy’s choice. Now, they expect it to happen, not knowing that the claiming used to be something most demigods prayed for, for years, just to get out of the overcrowded Hermes Cabin. Have you forgotten, Hermes, how much you begged the others to pay more attention to their kids, because everyone was suffering? But Percy did what a god couldn’t. He changed things. He made things better for all of us. Yet if anyone was to mention his name to anyone else, they wouldn’t talk to eachother for decades. Aphrodite. It was your daughter who joined one of the seven, who became one of the most powerful demigods there has ever been. But where is Piper now? More importantly, what does your cabin look like? Your children have become self-centred, selfish, and stuck up. They have forgotten what you stand for, what you are about. They have become the weakest cabin, with the most disliked members.”

Aphrodite clenched her fists, but didn’t say anything. She knew it was true. Tears rolled down her perfect cheeks.

“Dionysus, Percy was the first and last demigod you ever called by their real name. But does everyone here know why you do it? You do it to distance yourself from the campers, so when they die, it doesn’t hurt as much. But it still hurts. Just as much as it must hurt you when the campers use Zeus’ Fist as a climbing ground, not knowing it was the place your son, Castor, made his final stand. Where Pollux wrote and placed his letter, before taking his own life…”

He didn’t look at Dionysus, he didn’t want to.

Hestia lowered her voice. “The last mortal of that time died centuries ago. And this morning, Thalia took her final stand.”

Everyone turned to look at Artemis, who had been fighting tears the entire time, even before the topic of the past was brought up. Persephone grabbed her hand gently.

“So, it’s true?” Aphrodite whispered.

“… Along with the majority of my hunters, there is only a handful left now. Not even enough to leave anyone behind to look after the animals.”

Hestia continued. “With Thalia gone, it’s only a matter of time before we all pretend that she didn’t exist, like none of them ever existed, and I do not want that… They don’t deserve to be forgotten. And you haven’t forgotten them, Hades. You had a few children after Nico’s death, but then, all of a sudden, they stopped appearing. None of them were like Nico, so you gave up having demigod children. And at camp… when they are giving a tour to new campers… they explain why the cabins are empty. They still tell new campers that Hera is the god of marriage, so she won’t have an affair. But everyone else’s have changed. When asked why cabin 13 is empty, they simply say that children of Hades are an urban myth. And even if they were real, no-one would want the creepy kids to be there anyway. I don’t know about any of you, but I remember how everyone loved Hazel, how much excitement, and joy people would get just by being AROUND Nico in a happy mood. No-one in this time knows how your kids used to be. They don’t know how your children could hold so much life in them… Nico went to Tartarus, and no-one knows that! Most didn’t even know that in his time! He suffered in there, but he still came back. Damaged, but still whole. Percy and Annabeth did too, BECAUSE of who they had to leave behind! They might have arranged for Damasen and Bob to be brought to the surface, but they have been slayed and reformed since then. They are both still stuck in Tartarus, because there is no Percy to challenge us, to make us do what is RIGHT and bring them back once more! And they're not the only ones! Mrs O'leary could shadow travel out, but what about Tyson and Ella!?”

Tears were rolling down Hestia’s cheeks as she raised her voice, something no-one in the room had ever seen her do before.

“And need I remind you all about APOLLO!?!” She screamed the name.

Everyone flinched, some so badly they fell out of their chair. More tears fell down Artemis’ cheeks, but she flinched because of the shouting, not the name. Everyone knew that Thalia and Artemis were so close because of the fact they could talk to eachother about him.

She stared us all down. “APOLLO APOLLO APOLLO APOLLO APOLLO!” She screamed at us. No-one could look at her. “EVEN IF NONE OF YOU CARED ABOUT THE DEMIGODS, I KNOW YOU USED TO CARE ABOUT HIM! BUT NONE OF YOU HAVE SAID THAT WORD FOR CENTURIES! THIS MORNING, A CAMPER WAS BEING SHOWN AROUND, AND HE WAS TOLD CABIN SEVEN WAS EMPTY BECAUSE * _HELIOS_ * JUST WASN’T INTERESTED IN MORTALS OR CHILDREN! NO-ONE KNOWS THAT HE EVER LIVED! APOLLO GOT ALONG WITH EVERYBODY, WHETHER THEY ADMITTED IT OR NOT! AND HE DIED BECAUSE HE CHOSE TO GIVE UP HIS IMMORTALITY SO WE WOULDN’T BE HARMED! HE GAVE UP EVERYTHING FOR US, BUT HE **_*DIED*_** TO SAVE LEO! NONE OF YOU WILL EVER SAY IT, SO I WILL! APOLLO’S DEAD! HE’S DEAD, AND NOT COMING BACK! WHY WON’T ANY OF YOU LET YOURSELVES GRIEVE!?”

Hestia slammed her fists on the table. “We… We can’t move on…”

Almost two hours passed, still a short time for a god, and no-one had moved. It was likely no-one would move for a while more, but it was then that Nemesis, the least affected by Apollo’s death, finally ran out of tears, and placed her hand on Hestia’s shoulder.

“None of this… is fair. I have let it go unpunished for too long, not wanting to acknowledge that it ever happened. But it is time for a change. They won’t forget after I am done. Perseus, Leo… Ap-pollo, they will never be forgotten again. I swear it on the River Styx.”

Thunder rumbled overhead.

We all listened to her plan, and while some parts of it would be horrible for those involved, everyone knew that this would be the real change, one that would finish everything.

Hades agreed to the plan, something that surprised Persephone, and when pressed about why she was so shocked, we finally learnt about how much paperwork that he always did. He was almost as overworked as Hermes was, but at least his job let him travel, and didn’t involve heaps of deskwork.

A few decades had passed since that meeting, and everything was almost settled into place. Artemis had gained more hunters, but all that were alive when Thalia was had taken too many risks after the loss of so many of their friends, and were now gone. A few people had caught onto the fact we were planning something. The Fates and Oracles joined our cause immediately. Athena took coercing, but she finally admitted that while possibly the stupidest plan she’s ever heard of, it was almost certain to work. She helped with the finer points of the plan, and with her guidance, it got done much faster.

**(ZEUS POV)**

Just because he was the king of the gods does not mean he was always wise or observant. It was Hera that first brought to his attention that the three maiden goddesses, Athena, Artemis, and Hestia, were hanging out with the goddess of love. It took longer for him to realize that Hephaestus TV hasn’t been showing any Ares/Aphrodite traps for a couple of years. So when he approached him to ask why that was…

“They haven’t been doing anything for a couple of years. I believe they are having a fight.” Hephaestus answered.

So naturally he started a conversation with his most violent son.

“I didn’t know we were having a spat… she just said she’s been busy. She didn’t say with what.”

It was weird… but he supposed it wasn’t quite important, so he would put it on the backburner for now. A few more years had passed when he noticed them talking.

It was right after one of their big meetings, the winter one, and the demigods watching had already been taken back to camp. But Hades… he had gone to Athena, telling something to her, and before long, the group had formed, whispering to eachother.

Artemis, Athena, Hestia, Hermes, Nemesis, Ariadne, Hades, Persephone, and Aphrodite. He didn’t know there were more to the group, that Dionysus just had to leave with the campers. But when the minor goddesses entered the room, he knew something was up. Obviously, so did the other gods, because no-one had left the room, curiosity peaked.

“Hades surrounded by girls?” Demeter scoffed. “They must be up to something.”

A couple of minutes passed, everyone whispering about what they think they were up to, when it happened. Artemis broke away from the group, and approached.

“Daddy?”

He mentally swore. She only called him that when she wanted something. “Yes, sweetheart?”

“I was wondering if you could approve of something for me… I just need a signature. I didn’t want to bring it up in front of everyone’s children, is all…”

Everyone who she was talking to was watching them intently. At first, he had thought she had just got bored of scheming with them, and had wanted to get what she wanted while they were in the same room, but now he knew that whatever she wanted was part of the plan.

“What do you need me to sign?” He still kept his voice gentle for his little girl.

“Oh, just this.” She waved her hand, and Athena approached with a grin, holding a stack of papers.

Zeus didn’t know this, but it was larger than all the books put together.

What he did know was that he did NOT want to read that to figure out if he approved or not. But…

“I have plenty of duties, Artemis. When did you expect me to read this?”

He watched as tears filled her eyes.

“Athena, I’m assuming you helped write this?”

“Yes father. It has been decades in the making.”

“I am trusting you will not lead me astray?”

“When have I ever?”

“Very well, you are to make sure this happens. Where do I sign?”

Hera raised an eyebrow at him, but he couldn’t say no to his daughter. Once the signature was written down, everyone in the throne room froze.

Artemis was smiling.

She hadn’t done that in front of them since…

She picked up the stack of papers, holding it close for a second, before giving it back to Athena.

“Brother, that was the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen you do.” His eldest brother drawled.

He shot Hades a glare.

“Don’t be mad at him father,” Athena began. “I have to agree. I am the goddess of wisdom, so I know that signing something you haven’t read is a dumb idea, but since I know what was written in it? It makes it ten times worse.”

She was grinning.

“Athena, what did-”

“You just agreed to do one of the dumbest things I have ever heard of.”

“But you-”

“I’m wise enough to know it’s without a doubt going to work. But this is one of the few times a dumb idea is going to work over a smart one. This will take place at the beginning of July, once the campers have been at camp a month. Goodbye, father, I need to get to work setting this up. Speaking of…”

She flicked past a few pages. “This states that you must order Demeter to stay away from the underworld until at least spring. Hades, I believe you will be able to perform your duties efficiently because of this?”

“Yes, I shall get to work straight away.” He took Persephone’s hand, and disappeared. No-one missed the look on his face.

Hermes laughed at the expression on Zeus' face. “This is going to be the best summer ever! Come on guys, we’ve got to tell Dionysus the plan’s on!”

Soon enough, the only one left who knew what Zeus signed was Athena.

“Just what did you make him sign?!” Poseidon demanded. “Hades and Artemis smiling? Nemesis holding back laughter? Hermes and Dionysus in on the plan? Aphrodite hanging out with three eternal maidens? What was in that!?”

Athena smiled. “Wait and see, uncle. I promise it will end up something we will all enjoy.”

**(DIONYSUS POV)**

Nemesis had locked herself away in her room, opening her modified fortune cookies, typing up what they say, then moving on to do it again. Sentence by sentence, her cookies were reading the mind and writing down the story of the heroes, to be read by everyone together. Apart from the Fates and Nemesis, everyone split their duties among eachother, reducing Hades’ and Hermes’ workloads down so much that they could focus on the paperwork that mattered. And finally, the last sentence of the last book was done. Nemesis spread the news immediately, and we all set up in the big house once more, and waited. The camp counsellors walked in for their weekly meeting, freezing when they saw us waiting for them.

“Needless to say,” Chiron started. “This will be quite an important meeting, so I will need you all to be on your best behaviour.”

It was the first time everyone sat still during a meeting. The children were extremely confused as to why some of their parents were there, especially when they only talked about normal camp stuff, but they were even more confused when their parents left to follow them outside, moving to sit in the pavilion as they waited for… something, watching the camp activities from afar. Later that day, the Romans appeared at the camp, having been ordered to go there by Jupiter. The gods at the pavilion did wince at the sudden roman aura that they felt, but the Athena Parthenos being returned had kept them from constant switching and headaches. Being so close to it, in a place that was just so _Greek_ , kept them in their Greek forms. Aphrodite got up and started mingling with her children, both Roman and Greek. The campers freaked out when Artemis’ Hunters came past the border, milling around their lady, who just looked so… _happy_. He supposed they almost had a heart attack when the gods arrived, keeping to a human size, and looking extremely annoyed. They still hadn’t been told what was going on, only that they had to pass their duties onto lesser gods for as long as it took to finish this “task”, which they had to participate in, whatever it was. A few of the gods lost their scowls when they realized they where they were, just happy that whatever this task was, it was with their kids. It was awkward, but they began mingling. The campers were quite shocked to find out that the “honorary cabin” for Artemis was there for her hunters to use.

But that wasn’t what made him start enjoying the day.

“Chiron, Mr. D?” A camper got our attention. “Someone’s coming. A big group.”

Chiron nodded. “That must be Hades and Thanatos. They informed me they might be late.”

He could feel everyone freezing.

“He is joining in on this activity too?” An annoyed goddess demanded.

Persephone sighed. “Yes mother, we arranged for everyone to come. Including him.”

He was glad that the campers got too distracted by the two women arguing, because it made their parents stop to try and convince their kids to leave it alone. And because they were focused on their kids, they didn’t pay attention to Hades walking up to them, hiding a smile as one of the teenagers from the group moved forward, smirk on his lips.

“So, are you guys going to continue this all day, or can we get some introductions going?”

The teen folded his arms, and the gods slowly turned, frozen at the voice they heard, and could never forget.

“Okay then, I’ll start. Hey new campers, me and my friends are going to hang out here for a while, okay? My name’s Percy Jackson.”


	2. Introductions And Sorting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The actual reading will start in chapter five, fair warning.

“What do you mean, “new campers”?” A camper demanded. “We were here first!”

Percy glanced his girlfriend’s way, giving her a trouble making look.

 _Let’s see how long we can ride this._ It almost seemed to say.

She scoffed and shot a glare right back.

_Don’t even think about it._

But he had already turned to face whoever said that.

“Because this is a camp, right? So, you’re campers. And I’m new to you guys, so you’re new to me too. Ergo, new campers.”

Everyone from the past groaned when they realized Percy’s plan.

The gods managed to stifle their annoyance. They should have expected something like this the second they heard his voice, after all.

“Don’t be mad Father,” Athena said calmly, quiet enough so only the other gods would hear. “The form you signed gave Hades the right to bring whoever he wanted back to life without consequences.”

The king shot a glare to the group who had formed the plan, but froze. Artemis was smiling again, but also crying?

“My lady, what is wrong?” One of her hunters asked worriedly, eyes wide.

A voice called from the group as he stepped forward. “Five drachmas says I can guess!”

The hunters wrinkled up their noses when they saw the boy, curly brown hair and a winner’s grin. He had an arm around the shoulders of two girls, both of which were smiling wide, and glowing slightly silver. Hunters. A hunter was about to say something, glaring at the boy between them, when Artemis rushed forward, enveloping the three in a hug. The campers, romans, and hunters assumed that she just wanted to hug the hunters, and the boy just happened to be caught up in it. Everyone else knew Artemis just wanted to hug her little brother, but couldn’t just hug a boy by himself in front of her hunters. Not without them knowing. And she wouldn’t have been able to explain it to them before embracing him.

Annabeth had arranged so Apollo would walk in between Thalia and Zo _ë_ , so the twins could reunite without everyone watching at a later time.

“Is everyone just going to-” The demigod who spoke closed their mouth, seemingly just realizing that it probably wouldn’t be the best idea to say his thoughts out loud right now.

He froze when everyone turned to face him.

“Yes?” Demeter asked her son, raising her chin.

He stammered, looking down.

Aphrodite grinned. “Oh, dear Athena, I believe the demigod is scared of saying what he thinks in fear of retribution~!”

Athena gave a matching grin, before summoning the form Zeus signed, flipping past a couple of pages, before reading a line out loud. “No god shall smite, curse, or seriously harm anyone for anything they say during these visits.” She snapped it shut. “You are safe, little one. There is more to that particular clause, of course, but I was summarising it.”

It took a while, but the boy managed to force his words out. “Is… Is everybody just going to ignore the fact that Lord Hades just popped up with a massive group of demigods, why Lady Artemis was crying before she hugged two of her hunters, why every single roman is here, why our parents showed up out of nowhere?”

“I’ll explain!” Percy shouted. Everyone who knew him winced.

“Okay, so here’s the thing. A couple of gods got together and decided to introduce you guys to all of us, and that’s why everyone is here, so we don’t have to do this twice, and so the other gods can learn more about us and what we went through. Who are we? A third group of demigods. We’re not split up by what version our parents are, and our place wasn’t as safe as your places are, so we were eventually brought over. The thing is that we are closest to the entrance of the underworld, so that’s why Lord Hades was asked to bring us here, because we’re pretty powerful, so we needed a god’s protection to get across the country alive. Lady Artemis was crying because those two are Zoë and Thalia. Long story short, a couple of centuries ago, Lady Artemis and a few of her hunters got separated. The hunters had no way to find or contact Artemis, and Artemis had no way to know any of her hunters had even survived. This has only happened two times, though. So that’s why they are both Lieutenants.”

Annabeth held her head in her hands at that horrible excuse for a lie. Malcolm grinned and shot his sister a look that screamed _You’re dating this idiot_.

Luckily for Percy (and unluckily for literately anybody else), the truth, that they were brought back to life, was even more ridiculous than the lie.

All the legends say Hades won’t let anybody out of the underworld, for whatever reason.

The campers of the present couldn’t get over the fact there was a third camp. After all, why would any demigod be hidden from the others? There was no point to it.

And these new campers were weird, there was no doubt about it. One of the campers almost cried when he introduced himself. Lester, his name was. With an impossible to pronounce last name.

They said they had all already been claimed, but none of them introduced themselves as the son or daughter of someone.

Well, there was one exception.

One called “Percy Jackson.”

Percy… introduced himself as the son of Sally, gesturing to a woman. Apparently, there were humans here, that the gods are letting into the camp for this visit, whatever it was.

After introductions were over, the past campers got a tour of the camp by the head of the Hephaestus cabin.

**(SON OF HEPHAESTUS POV)**

He was mad.

He tried not to be, but he was furious.

These new campers weren’t the least bit interested in anything he had to show them. They were polite enough to pretend, but they were horrible actors.

The one called Jason looked excited at the shrine to Kymopoleia, but didn’t say why.

Even when he held a match up to the stone cliff, revealing the entrance to bunker 9, they only looked mildly impressed at best! The rest of both camps were following the tour to see their reactions, and they looked just as annoyed as him. Finally, they were on the last part of the tour, and the part he found the most boring.

Chiron’s Wall of Heroes.

“Why is it outside?” Someone asked.

“It doesn’t rain at camp, so the pictures don’t get ruined.”

“No, why is the Wall of Heroes outside?”

He didn’t understand, but luckily, Chiron spoke up.

“Over the centuries, the list of heroes got too long, so the outside wall had to be built to hold them all.” The centaur stated.

The campers were looking over the various heroes of the past, roughly the section where coloured pictures had started to become most common.

He began the speech about how much of an honour it was to be added to the wall, eyes darting around.

Then something caught his eye.

_Oh fuck no._

**(GENERAL POV)**

“You’ve got to be fucking with me!” the son of Hephaestus shouted, making everyone jump.

“What?” was asked by multiple people.

Only one person said something different.

“Language.” Hephaestus muttered.

Just because he could swear doesn’t mean he was happy with his children doing it.

“What?” The kid repeated. “Seriously? You all are hopeless! Everyone here! I know what you’re all like! You are all watching the new guys’ faces, waiting for a reaction, but you’re looking at the wrong things! I can’t… WOW guys. I can’t look at faces like you guys can, maybe that’s why I didn’t notice, but COME ON!”

Everyone began looking around, watching the demigods, trying to figure out what was wrong.

One by one, the gods smiled, waiting for the cover to be blown.

It didn’t take long until a child of Hermes let out a short scream, filled with anger, confusion, and understanding.

He practically stormed over to the group, and the wall. One hand pointed to the group. The other pointed to a group of pictures.

“I thought bringing the dead back to life was impossible!” He snapped.

Quite a lot of eyes and mouths were wide open as they stared at the pictures of the group, some of the group matching the pictures exactly.

They were from the past.

They must have passed away eons ago.

“I *TOLD* you that this ridiculous plan of yours wouldn’t work!” Annabeth told Percy, folding her arms.

“Hey, it was fun while it lasted, right?” He shot the campers a grin. “Sorry guys for doing that, but I had to. I haven’t been able to play a prank in forever!”

“Yeah, you’re taking over our business, Perce!” Conner laughed, lightly punching Percy’s shoulder.

Annabeth gestured to Frank, silently asking him to explain to the campers while she focused on making sure a mock fight between Percy and the Stoll brothers wouldn’t start up.

Frank stepped forward. No-one missed the Praetor’s cape hanging from his shoulders.

“Yes, we have all died long ago. Some of the gods have decided to bring us back so that we all may teach you what we have learnt through experience. That is also why all of the gods are here, so that they can learn more about how demigods think, so that relations can improve in the future. We have been requested not to reveal our godly parent until it has been revealed to you all by an outside force, which will be explained soon. I cannot explain it to you, as we weren’t given the full premise of what will happen while the gods are here.”

Hazel gave her boyfriend a thumbs up at the speech, knowing that he needed encouragement despite how it might not seem like it to most.

Athena stood up, explaining what they were here for. “You are going to be reading some books about the lives of these demigods. Not everyone here was of the utmost of importance, of course. But these demigods from the past were much more close-knit than you all, and would have never agreed to participate and allow us access to their memories if we hadn’t brought everyone back, and in order to do this properly, we would have to have their full permission. While here, we all are to use everyone’s Greek names, to avoid any unneeded stress. Additionally, everyone who was not directly involved in the planning of this, another words the gods outside of our group, will have their memories temporarily removed. Except for Chiron, if he wishes. The demigods have promised not to reveal anything intentionally, but us gods would do such a thing if the said demigod was disrespectful to us. And if we know the outcome, we might feel… inclined to brush off what the demigods are feeling in the moment. We might ignore what we need to hear.” The gods were starting to look less shocked and more angry. “It is all in the form Zeus signed. Once again, a dumb idea not to read it first.”

Sure enough, on one of the pages, it said Zeus would order everyone relevant to give up their memories until after the reading was over. Glares were shot at the king of the gods. Some of the gods who were in on it chose to give them up as well, just to make things more interesting to read. At the end, only Hestia, Persephone, Artemis, Nemesis, and Aphrodite chose to keep their memories. Athena had wanted to originally, so she could stop fights before they began, but eventually decided that she wanted it to be a brand-new experience.

Poseidon had frowned once his was given up. He knew that he had wanted to talk to the one called Percy, but now he didn’t know why.

Looking around, he noted that everyone was now looking at the previously dead campers with curiosity, trying to figure out which ones were their kids. He began doing the same. He supposed he saw a couple that could have been his, but he couldn’t be certain.

But what unnerved others the most was that they could tell a large part of their memories including Artemis were gone. They had a couple, but not enough to explain why they was close to her besides familial relations.

Artemis seemed to guess why so many people were staring at her. “I play a large role in one of these stories. Or at least, I’m close to someone who did. In erasing your memories of them, the memories where we were together, which was often, were deleted. Even though they shouldn’t show up in the books, the memories will still return after we are done.”

“But I can barely remember you at all, Artemis!” Zeus protested.

“Yes, father. But your memories will return. I’m afraid I was not often without someone from this group.”

It wasn’t long until the gods had been re-introduced with the children.

“So which ones of you are mine?” Ares asked.

Enyo raised her eyebrow at her twin brother. Usually, he was much more flippant around his kids and family, not wanting to show how much he truly cared.

“We literately just told you that we weren’t allowed to tell.” Percy sounded annoyed.

Ares didn’t understand why, but he wouldn’t back down. “Then where exactly are my brats meant to sleep then? The Hermes cabin? It wouldn’t fit all of you.”

…

That caused a pause.

“We could always sleep in our patrons’ cabins.” Leo suggested.

“NO!” Jason and Percy snapped at him, the latter shooting a short glare in Hera’s direction.

Of course, she was in the middle of a group of gods, so they didn’t know who he seemed mad at, luckily.

“That’s not what I meant!” Leo quickly raised his hands in a _don’t kill me_ gesture. “When we have our godly parents revealed in the books, we’ll sleep in our proper cabins, but until then, the gods could give us permission to sleep in their cabin to keep things a secret. All different cabins so that they don’t get too crowded.”

“My cabin is off-limits.” Hera said immediately, but otherwise didn’t disagree to it.

After a bit of arguing, and a bit of convincing, it was agreed to. To choose whatever cabin they slept in, everyone would vote on who they thought their parent or ancestor was. The order of who gets chosen was argued upon a small bit, but it was eventually agreed to just pull names out of a hat. Demigods got chosen first. Everyone guessed Annabeth easily, with her blonde hair and grey eyes. Travis and Conner were disappointed they couldn’t mess around in a different cabin, but they were so obviously children of Hermes. Kayla was misidentified first.

“Look at her hair, her mum’s Hecate!”

Kayla rolled her eyes, but moved to sit with cabin 20.

Dakota was the next one guessed wrong. Since Dionysus/Bacchus didn't have any kids in this time, the campers assumed they never did. He got put with the Hypnos kids with Pollux and Castor, because of their cherub-like features.

Michael Yew took a long time to vote on, until he started snapping at people, not wanting to stand there much longer.

“I know he’s not muscly, but that’s definitely dad’s temper!” An Ares kid grinned.

Will got chosen to be an Aphrodite kid, much to Nico’s amusement.

Lee got chosen to be put in the Hermes cabin.

Georgina got put in the Hephaestus cabin.

Everyone just gave up with Gwen, since legacies were sometimes so hard to tell who they were related to, and put her in the Hermes cabin as a visitor.

Austin was easy. They got the parent wrong, but he was still easy to pick.

“Look at his clothes! Only a child of Aphrodite would bother wearing a suit for casual wear!”

Paolo was argued about for a while, before everyone settled on him being a child of Hephaestus. Of course, he was constantly saying his mother was the goddess of Youth, but he was just taking advantage of the fact no-one but the gods and a few in the past could speak in his native language. Those who did understand him were grinning at him breaking the rules so blatantly, but since none of the future, technically modern, demigods could understand him, there was nothing anybody could do.

Olujime got selected as a child of Zeus. And well… They weren’t _wrong_. Wrong religion, but close? Being a demigod child of a god of a religion not commonly practiced in America was hard sometimes. But as some people were arguing he was a child of Aphrodite, he couldn’t complain.

Nico took forever.

“What was he like before he started his emo phase!?”

Everyone was too busy laughing to answer.

A boy from the Aphrodite cabin finally decided to give up. “Just put him in our cabin, he obviously needs our help anyway!”

Percy and Will began laughing at Nico’s offended expression, but eventually, Nico found himself walking to sit with the Aphrodite kids, glaring at his boyfriend and ex-crush as he muttered Italian curses under his breath. He pointedly sat AWAY from Will just to prove that he was mad about the laughter.

Luke took forever. When he was younger, he would have been easily picked out as a child of Hermes, but he had a hard time smiling nowadays. He had only been alive for a few days, but everyone around him had been… awkward. Not everyone. But he noted the ones that weren’t awkward, weren’t around during the war. Meaning they didn’t know. Great. This would be awkward.

Maybe he could get a few people to trust him before they learn about his mistakes. He would enjoy befriending someone that wasn’t a monster, even if it didn’t last long.

“Look at his brooding look. A child of Hades?”

“Please, Hades doesn’t have children!”

A few of the demigods brought back to life started coughing violently.

“Uh-huh. Right. What about Hitler?” Percy got a glare from Nico and Hazel for mentioning that particular child of Hades.

This was met with sounds of disbelief, before somebody remembered they couldn’t get in trouble from the gods about what they said.

“Why doesn’t that surprise me in the slightest? Hades’ only kid, and he acted like that. Makes sense that he would father a psychopath.”

Everyone went silent.

Unluckily for them, there was nothing in the rulebook about other demigods not punishing them for what they said. Nico didn’t want to be ostracized so soon over defending himself and his father. He preferred people think he was an Aphrodite kid rather than a Hades kid at this point in time. Hazel silently fumed, but also kept her silence. She had a feeling if she kept her silence, she wouldn’t be avoided like she used to be.

But Percy had always been rash.

The kid had been knocked flat on his butt before he could blink, Percy pulling back his fist as he said, super casually, “Don’t diss my cousins.” As if they were just having a normal conversation.

Aphrodite’s son scowled, but didn’t retaliate. Aphrodite’s kids weren’t strong, he knew this. And anyone could see the water around them becoming agitated. Violently agitated.

One of Poseidon’s children, a girl named Pearl, quickly realized something was going to go down very quickly, and spoke up. “So, I’m guessing you’re my big bro then, huh?”

Percy wasn’t expecting that, and turned to face her. Seeing her eyes, he guessed pretty quickly she was one of Poseidon’s. “Was it that obvious?”

She gestured to the lake, and Percy quickly blushed, and the water stilled.

**(PEARL POV)**

“Don’t worry bro,” Pearl said. “Water manipulation is common for kids of cabin two. I’ll help you get a hang of your powers.”

He was obviously new to being a demigod, with how calm he was around the gods, even if they promised not to smite us. She would help him through this trial of adjustment. It was better than letting him go rampant.

The girl who was first to be sorted quickly covered her mouth, so Pearl shot her a glare. There was no doubt she was one of Athena’s brats.

“You shouldn’t laugh at someone with budding powers, just because you are jealous you don’t have any.”

Pearl smiled as she saw the girl’s eyes flash with anger. The beautiful girl who got chosen as one of Aphrodite’s kids quickly grabbed her hand, pulling her back and whispering something in her ear.

“I’m glad your girlfriend has some sense in her, at least. Although how a child of Athena scored someone that good-looking, I admit I’m shocked. And you, Piper, I think it was? You can do better.”

Anger flashed in both their eyes once more, but they kept their cool as they exchanged glances, smirking as if sharing a private joke. Pearl’s anger flared up. Normally she was fine with most campers, but all of Poseidon’s and Athena’s kids hated eachother instinctively.

Well, there had been cases of them getting along on the way to camp, but once there, they split apart immediately.

She hated them acting as if they knew something she didn’t.

Piper wrapped her arm around the Athena brat, and shook her head. “Nah, I don’t think I can get any better than what I’ve got.” She winked, but it was a little bit off.

Pearl didn’t notice Percy winking back from behind her as a few past campers tried not to laugh.

This was going to be the funniest disaster ever, and everyone from the past knew it.

Pearl rolled her eyes, but turned back. “Whatever, let’s just get back to the sorting before I vomit. Who’s next?”

“We haven’t figured out this one yet!”

“Then let’s just put him in Hades’ cabin, and move on! Percy said “cousins”, and was all moody about it, so it’s likely one of these ones are one of his kids, and he’s the most likely, let’s hurry this up!”

A few of the cabin one kids shot her a glare, but didn’t argue.

Hazel’s name was called out, and she looked conflicted, before moving over to sit with Luke, who was alone.

“Please, you’re not a Hades kid.”

“No, I’m not. But I don’t want anybody to have to sit alone.” She retorted.

Gold eyes flashed, and everyone decided not to argue.

Leo was the next person misidentified.

“Hermes, one hundred percent!”

Damien got impatient and just went to sit with the other Nemesis kids.

Jo got put with the Hephaestus kids.

Emmie refused to go anywhere without her wife, and told everyone to vote her into the Hephaestus cabin.

Holly and Laurel refused to let eachother go first after Holly’s name was read out. Naturally, their parent was obvious.

Percy’s name was called out, and he rolled his eyes. “Gee, what do you guys think I am? I don’t know… I don’t think it’s that obvious…”

The Athena brat looked like she was about to smack him, so he quickly moved to sit with Pearl’s group, grinning.

Frank was eventually put with the Hephaestus kids.

The next name was called out.

Artemis smirked as she took the name out. “Lester Papadopoulos.”

**(APOLLO POV)**

_Ouch._

**(ZEUS POV)**

Artemis didn’t let anybody start voting on this one. “I’m going to make it easy on you all, he is one of my demigod brothers.”

Zeus looked at Lester in shock. He would not have guessed him to be one of his sons.

Lester noticed him staring, and quickly averted his gaze.

Not embarrassed.

Scared.

The boy was likely worried he would be disgusted that one of his own sons turned out so… average.

He hoped the boy would get over it. As the king of the gods, he had to give an example, and no matter how much he wanted to, he couldn’t show attention to his children.

But the way Artemis slipped him a smile…

He would get her to explain to him about why he couldn’t tell him personally that he cared.

Another name was called, but two people walked up to the unofficial podium. One was a mountain nymph, and was guiding a man. Zeus decided the boy must be blind, by the careful way she was leading him. Once there, she let go of his hand and stepped back. He almost immediately got chosen as a child of Aphrodite, and the nymph grabbed his arm, and led him to the group.

**(PERCY POV)**

He flinched when he saw Narcissus. Leo and Hazel had told them the story, albeit unable to remember what Echo looked like. When he had made the gods remove his curse… He didn’t mean blind the guy so he can’t look at himself. Echo, he could remember her features, but he didn’t know if she still had to repeat everything. He doubted Hera would fully remove the curse.

He grinned as everyone voted for Valentina to be an Aphrodite kid, before they even saw her move. They were right, but he still had to wonder how many mortals named their kids BECAUSE of their godly parent.

Billie Ng got placed in Hecate’s cabin, with the argument that while it wasn’t green, only Hecate’s children dyed their hair unnatural colours.

Hylla got chosen as one of Ares’ children.

After they were done, Kinzie spoke up. “Hey! What about the rest of us!?”

“You are a deminymph, not a demigod?” Percy guessed.

Artemis sighed. “While that was not the correct term… it is sort of correct. The immortals, mortals, nymphs, monsters, and satyrs are being sorted separately. Now, mortals, please go to the cabin your children were sorted in. Maria, go to the Aphrodite cabin with Nico. I would prefer you not to sleep in my cabin with your daughter. Bianca, this doesn’t mean you have to ignore your mother, just that she is not permitted in my cabin. Those of you with more than one child sorted into different cabins, are to move between them. Now, my hunters from the past, come to me.”

Bianca, Thalia, Parthenos, Celyn, Zoe, Naomi, Hunter, Phoebe, and some other hunters Percy didn’t know the names of, all joined her, smiling up at her.

Kinzie got told to stay with the Zeus cabin, since her mother was an air-type nymph.

Echo got told to sit with the Aphrodite cabin, to help Narcissus walk around.

Mellie joined Kinzie.

Rachel and Trophonius were told to sleep in the oracle cave.

Calypso caused a bit of confusion, before people decided she must have been a sister to a demigod, and got told to sit with her sibling. She shrugged and moved to sit with Leo at the Hermes cabin. They didn’t have to know. Coach Hedge shot her a look, but she ignored it.

The Satyrs were told to go wherever they wanted. So, Grover trotted over to Percy’s side, and Coach Hedge got demanded by Clarisse to bring Chuck to her.

“Oh, thank goodness, we’re finally done!” A camper called out. “Can we hurry up and read these books now?”

Aphrodite turned towards her daughter. “We can only stay here as long as the books are being read. Once they are done, we have to leave again.”

Percy noted that nobody seemed in a hurry to get it over and done with, and he spoke up. “Besides, not all of us are here yet. The others were told to get here a day later, just in case.”

Under normal circumstances, waiting a day would drive the demigods crazy.  But waiting a day with their parents? They could handle it.

The mortal parents were walking around nervously. In the past couple of days, they had time to adjust to gods being real if they didn’t already know, but being around them was a different story altogether. And those who did know? They were desperately trying to avoid the gods they fell in love with. They were NOT going to be wooed again. At least when their children were around.

The groups split up to continue doing what they normally did, and everyone kept on asking about the second group. They wanted to know why they made the second group of demigods risk their lives by waiting an extra day. No-one would answer.

But hey, it wasn’t every day that the demigods had something to hold over someone else’s head, let alone over the gods’ heads.

They were going to relish this moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As much as I don't like OCs, I finally realized (after a LONG time with writer's block) that I cannot do this without any. I can't just go "son of Hephaestus", "daughter of Poseidon". It would get repetitive and boring.  
> But I suck at names, so, knowing that they likely won't get any deep personalities, anyone have any cool demigod names? Pearl was literately the only one I've got, and it wasn't even my idea.


	3. Apollo's Clubhouse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y'all will finally learn why this took me so long...

**(GENERAL INTROSPECTIVE POV)**

“What about cabin counsellors?” A camper asked. “I mean, these guys *DID* have the titles first…”

Chiron looked pained, before looking around. “You will decide that among yourselves.”

“Okay, so I’m betting we got a heap of you guys wrong?” A kid, Storme, asked. “Because there’s no way there are only three Zeus kids here.”

Pearl snorted at her cousin’s words. “No kidding. Percy was the only one sorted into cabin three, which is all kinds of wrong.”

Thalia shot Percy and Jason grins, which they returned. Boy were they in for a surprise.

“Omigods, you are so right! Okay, who did we get wrong, seriously?” Storme eyed everyone.

“Nu-uh!” Percy said, like the mature seventeen-almost-eighteen-year-old he was. “Can’t tell you.”

Storme rolled her eyes, before gathering up her group, taking them to their cabin, turning to the five newcomers. “Okay, so the taken bunks are obvious, but you can pick whatever bed you want that’s not already in use.”

“Ap-” Jason quickly faked a sneeze, adding a _choo_ to the end of it, before correcting his mistake. “Lester, come here a sec.”

Apollo finally took nervous eyes away from the giant Zeus statue to shoot Jason a look, but walked over to him. Jason pointed out the hollow in the wall where both he and Thalia had slept to stay from the statue’s gaze. Apollo sent him a look that he hoped looked thankful, he wasn’t very used to morphing his features into such a face, then climbed up to the hole, crawling in.

Jason then tapped the frame of the bed closest to the brazier with a “Do you mind?”, sitting down on it once Apollo confirmed it was fine. Olujime took the bed next to him. Kinzie and Mellie went to sit with a group of girls, and soon enough everyone was settled in.

It wasn’t long until Olujime stood up, telling everyone that he understood if they couldn’t pronounce his name, and that he also went by “Jamie” and “Jimmy” for conveniences sake.

Plenty of kids were around, but only five introduced themselves.

Ajax, a gentle giant. Male.

Andrew, a genderfluid kid who went by “Andy” when they were feeling like a girl. Both.

Cloud. An aggressive guy who had the softest blue eyes. Male.

Jillian, who’s name literately meant “daughter of Jupiter”. Female.

Yun. A girl who, unlike all her siblings, had green eyes. Female.

“So…” Cloud started up. “Lester.”

Apollo winced painfully. “Yes?”

“You don’t really look like a Zeus kid. By any means. At all. Not even remotely.”

“Smooth” His friend/brother snorted.

Apollo looked at them all, frowning as he wondered just how much he could tell, but was luckily interrupted by Artemis walking in.

“May I have a word with… Lester?” The demigods were confused as to why she asked, and not demanded.

“Of course, Lady Artemis.” Storme said, eyes down. “But I have to ask why you told us his parentage? We were just on this topic.”

Artemis gave her a kind smile. “It isn’t often I become close to any of my mortal siblings, let alone the male ones, but once I do, I become quite attached to them. Since I will be rotating from my own cabin to here, since I am a daughter of Zeus, I didn’t wish to be without someone I knew for certain I could talk to. Frankly, I didn’t want to be bored in my nights here.”

“Aww, you wanted a friend! That is so cute!” The girl who said this immediately covered her mouth afterwards, eyes wide.

Artemis turned to Yun. “For future reference, if that is to be said around me when outside of the no-harming contract, I wouldn’t harm a maiden for saying that with no mocking in her tone. You needn’t be afraid of such a thing.”

Yun lowered her hands, and Artemis gave her a kind smile, getting a shy one in return. Then she turned and walked out of the cabin, Apollo trailing her into the woods until they reached the oracle’s cave. Together, they stepped inside, going past the creepy décor and into the living area behind the curtains.

Rachel immediately gave them a smile, waving from where she lounged on the seat.

Apollo frowned immediately. “Where is the current oracle?”

“What, aren’t I enough for you?” The girl grinned at his expression for a second before explaining. “Terezi lasted five minutes with me talking, and Trophonius complaining, to call it quits and move into the Big House until further notice. Did you know that she doesn’t even know she’s your oracle?”

Apollo looked pained, and that was answer enough.

…

…

…

For everyone else, not for him.

“Yes, I have been forgotten in this time, and it is a true shame. Where is Trophonius?”

“Sulking. He saw you coming and ran off to hide.”

“Ahh… That is…”

Artemis spoke up to distract her brother. “As much as it pains me to admit it, I have missed you, baby brother.”

He turned to grin at her. “How could you not?”

She let out a laugh at the statement that was just so… Apollo. Then she reached up, and to his horror, wiped away some tears. “I was going to say it has been too long, but I have only spent a few minutes with you, and have decided it wasn’t long enough!”

Despite her words, she moved forward to wrap her arms around him. He immediately returned it. Rachel politely averted her eyes until their moment was over.

“So…” He started. “Lester? Really?”

She covered her mouth, but giggles still slipped through. “This way, people can get to know you for who you are. They won’t act strange around you for being a god, something that I will not get. And besides, we can silently laugh as we fool them, and laugh out loud at their faces when they realize who you truly are.”

Apollo raised his eyebrows. “A practical joke, Artie? You haven’t played one of those since the first solar eclipse.”

“Don’t call me Artie.”

“Then don’t call me your baby brother.”

She smirked. She should have realized he wouldn’t have let that slide.

-

Back at the cabin, Storme spoke up. “So, I’m the cabin counsellor from my time. Does either of you want to challenge me for the title, if you were counsellor of your time?”

Jason shot Olujime a grin, before speaking up. “As much as I would *love* to go back to leading… And I was the counsellor of my cabin, so to speak… I’ll have to admit that… no-one here is a child of Zeus.”

His eyes shone with mirth, and everyone around them stopped talking. “We got you all wrong?”

“Of sorts… yes.”

Cursing was heard.

-

Hera scowled as she looked around her empty cabin, but it only deepened when she heard laughter coming from some of the other cabins.

-

Percy grabbed his mother’s hand, practically dragging her to his cabin. Paul shook his head fondly, adjusting his grip on Estelle before following them at a much calmer pace, watching the Poseidon child army race eachother inside.

He was content to stand by as Percy raced around, practically dragging his mother around as he showed her everything. He went over to where a girl called River was sitting on her bunk.

“That used to be my bunk, and the one beside it was Tyson’s!” He said, before racing off to show her something else.

How the kid had so much energy, he would never know.

Pearl watched, amused, before finally whistling to gain his attention. “So, what are we going to do about camp counsellors? I mean, I doubt you were your time’s counsellor, considering how long you must have known about the gods, but-”

“No, I was the counsellor. But you can have the leadership title.”

“Oh. Umm…” Pearl was honestly expecting a duel for it, or at least an argument. Since when does a child of the big three give up power? “Thanks?”

“No problem. But can you do me a favour and not side against the Zeus or Artemis cabins during the next capture the flag? If you still have that, that is.”

“We do, but why do you want us to team up with them?”

“Before Thalia was a hunter, we found out quickly that us fighting is dangerous. Of course, we were on the same side at the time, but as long as you don’t try to co-lead like we did… Well, that story is probably going to come up anyway.”

“O…kay?”

Percy just grinned at his sister, who smiled awkwardly back. This boy was a strange one, that was for sure.

Unlike in the Zeus cabin, everyone introduced themselves.

The girls in the cabin were Pearl, River, Amihan, Coral, Shannon, Undine, Marina, Maya, Rain, and Ripley.

The guys were Colt, Hai, Vincent, Yousuke, Bay, Caldur, Marsh, Caspian, and Wade.

-

“I am warning you all now, do NOT let the Stoll brothers anywhere NEAR our cabin. Trust me on this one.”

“Well, with that initiative, I’m guessing you were the counsellor of your time. Would you like it back, Katie?” Gladis asked.

“Uhh… sure? I mean, I was only the counsellor during the summer months. I wasn’t a year-rounder. Miranda had it the rest of the time.”

“Hey, me too! The twins, North and Uluwehi, those two boys in the corner, have the title during the school year.”

-

Sherman stood up. “I am the counsellor of my time, but only because Clarisse went to college. She should lead us, and that is final.”

He gave a stern look at them all.

It ended up in a spar, and Clarisse wiped the floor with the current leader, Dean.

Demigods had gotten soft.

Once done, she turned to Hylla, speaking up. “You have more leadership experience than I do. Did you wanna take my place?”

Hylla gave a tired smile. “I will save my strength for challenging my own title, not yours.”

-

Annabeth strode into the room, raising an eyebrow at her surroundings, before going over to a bunk, pointing at it. “Who’s is this?”

A guy stepped forward. “Mine, why?”

“In my time, it was mine. I want it back, so let’s start discussing who cares about it more, and-slash-or who’s willing to take a bribe.”

He raised his eyebrow. “You want to bribe me for my own bed?”

“I couldn’t care less about the bed, it’s the spot I like.” She raised her chin. “I am also willing to negotiate.”

“Take it while you can.” Malcolm piped up from his spot on a different bed. One that didn’t already have an owner because he would rather avoid conflict. “She’s known for fighting to get what she wants. Diplomacy, while something she’ll also kick your ass at, is just showing she is trying to make a good impression. That advice also goes to whoever is counsellor. Just let her have it. She’s a control freak.”

Annabeth stuck her tongue out at her brother. “You’re making me sound bossy.”

“You ARE bossy.” One of her sisters from the past piped up.

Annabeth shot them both a scowl, before turning back to the boy. “Ignore them, I am trying to be civil here. What can I do to earn the bunk?”

“I’ll be honest. I have no idea why you care so much about it, but I’m not one for confrontation. None of us are. I mean, we’ve heard tales that Athena kids used to be more outgoing in the past, but I never believed it until now. I mean, like, are you all so brash?”

“I blame her significant other.” Malcolm interrupted again. “But she has always had a territorial streak. Plus, her Fatal Flaw is Hubris, so we can also blame that.”

“Hold up, I’m stuck up on the used to be more outgoing part. What do you mean by that?”

“Well, Athena kids are all nerds, geeks. Introverts. I just heard in the past you were all more extroverted.”

“Kill me now.”

Her father _tsked_ from the side, tilting his head towards her brothers. Annabeth gave him and her step-mother apologetic looks.

-

Cabin seven was silent.

-

Artemis turned to the girls. “I’m sure you can all behave while I deal with an… issue that popped up. I will be back.”

She left, and another girl piped up, facing Thalia and Zo _ë_. “Hi, I’m Caroline, the current lieutenant. Would either of you mind if we share the title?”

“I appreciate your offer,” Zoë put emphasis on the your, to show off that she was using it correctly. “But I believe I am long overdue a break. Thalia?”

“Sure, we can co-lead, but only on one condition. If we have an argument, Lady Artemis is to decide who is right. Let’s not try and figure it out ourselves, I’m not mature enough for that.”

Caroline blinked. “I appreciate your honesty?” She sounded confused.

“Thanks.”

Zoë interrupted. “If I may intrude, even though I am no longer the lieutenant, would either of you mind if I still wear the circlet? Over two thousand years I have worn it, it would feel wrong not to do so.”

“I have no problems with it. Caroline?”

“None at all.”

“Thank you.”

-

A girl clapped her hands in cabin nine. “So, who had the awesome bed in the past?”

Charles raised his hand. “Me, Jake, Nyssa, and Leo.”

That earned him a light slap from his sister. “You weren’t meant to reveal any that were named wrong!”

“I have known Leo two days at best, and he’s already built how many machines without thinking? He’s not going to stay a Hermes kid for long.”

“Touché.”

“Okay, going back past the fact we got that scrawny kid wrong, because seriously, wow, would not have guessed it, why did you have so many counsellors?”

“Depends on if you believe that we were cursed or not.” Nyssa shrugged. “Personally, I don’t believe it to be true.”

“Anymore.” Jake added helpfully.

“Anymore.” She amended. “Because we were in a sucky mood, our workmanship went down, and that made us feel worse, which made our machines worse, then someone brought up the idea of a curse, and we practically started designing our machines to attack us after that, blaming it on the curse without paying attention to the obvious problem. Once we got a cabin counsellor who didn’t believe in the curse, and lifted our spirits, it disappeared.”

Alexis looked over them all. Beckendorf was silent. Jake was calm. Nyssa was tired. “Leo?”

There were nods. “Leo.” They confirmed.

-

A girl clapped her hands. “Okay, I’m Belle, and I’m your cabin counsellor, unless anyone wants to challenge me?”

“Piper does!” Will called out, smirking. “She wants to co-counsellor with Silena!”

“Oh. Someone actually wants to… Well okay then, congratulations, new counsellors!” Belle looked confused, but relieved.

-

Grayson ended up staying the cabin eleven counsellor, focusing on getting everyone settled instead.

There was a lot of complaints about how full the cabin is getting, making a lot of older campers roll their eyes.

-

In the empty Dionysus cabin, it wasn’t long until Pollux and Castor snuck in to have a proper reunion.

And if they sensed their dad watching, they made no comment on it.

-

Hazel immediately claimed her old bed before turning to Luke.

“So, I know you’re not a child of Hades or Pluto, so who are you?”

“Luke Castellan. Son of Hermes.” Luke paused. “It’ll be best if you go to your own cabin now, I’m not… I’ve made mistakes.”

He looked down, awkward.

Hazel’s eyes widened in understanding and recognition. “Well, from what I remember, you died a hero and ended up in Elysium. Who you sided with doesn’t matter to me. There’ll be enough against you when we read, you might as well have two friends by your side.”

He frowned. “Two?”

“Me, and Percy? We know you’re good now, and that’s what matters.”

He hummed softly in thought, before looking up to her. “I did live in an overcrowded cabin during my time here. An empty one will be bliss compared to that if you wanted to stay in your cabin.”

Hazel let out a soft laugh. “Luke, I’m Roman, but if I wasn’t, this WOULD be my cabin. Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto.”

She held her hand out, and his lips twitched in amusement before he took her hand, shaking it.

-

Colorado stared at his new brother. Butch was practically twice his size. If he wanted to fight for counsellor position, he would be smashed into the ground. But Butch simply put down his bags, told Colorado he was going to the stables, and that was it.

-

Dakota grinned at his Greek brothers as Clovis immediately fell asleep like the new daughters of Hypnos, Blanche and Zora, before waving the twins off to reconnect while he lay down on one of the beds. This was the upside for being mistaken for a child of Somnus. Hypnos. He meant Hypnos. He did have to wonder why his dad didn’t have any kids in this time period though.

-

Chiron interfered with the next two cabins, making it so all of them would co-counsel eachother.

Damien, Ethan, Birgit, and Maryam led the Nemesis cabin.

Holly, Laurel, Audra, Clio, Fayez, and Fazil led the Nike cabin.

-

Ava and Kanaya of the Hebe cabin were upset they didn’t get any new siblings.

-

Robin kept his counsellor position, Chiara getting distracted during their discussion and leaving to go yell at Damien.

-

Lou Ellen took over the Hecate cabin from Ida.

-

And that was all the cabins where the campers were sent, or were meant to be sent. The night was peaceful, mostly. It wasn’t long before Apollo felt a hand on his mouth, making his eyes snap open.

Like expected, it was Meg, making sure he stayed silent while Leo grinned from besides her.

He closed his eyes slowly, then opened them, beginning to sit up. He might as well get whatever they wanted over and done with. They practically dragged him to his feet, staying uncharacteristically silent. It wasn’t long until his eyes adjusted to the darkness, where he saw Jason tying up his shoelaces. He went over to sit by him while he slipped on his own shoes, and it didn’t take long for Leo to whisper to them where they were going before leaving quickly.

Apollo was about to wake Olujime, but Jason grabbed his shoulder and shook his head, and together the two of them snuck out, running to the Apollo Cabin before the harpies could see them.

Once inside, he noticed others around them, Jason and himself seemingly the last to enter.

Artemis, Aphrodite, Hestia, Persephone, and Nemesis were all there, for one.

Artemis quickly gave him a smile, and rushed over to give him another hug.

Thrice in one decade? Yeah, she must have been grieving over his death a LONG time.

But other than the goddesses, Jason, and himself, there was fifteen others, most he surprisingly recognized.

Leo and Meg weren’t back for a little while, so awkward chatter filled the room while they all waited.

Luckily, they didn’t have to wait for long, as Meg soon entered, holding the door open for Leo to push Chiron’s wheelchair through.

The centaur looked at them all, before sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose. “Explain.”

Percy was the one who decided to speak up. “Chiron, in our time, it was a lot harder for demigods. But because of that, we formed closer bonds. This group here, we’re basically like the leaders. The people to go to if you need help. Of course, we’re not all here yet. Reyna is practically the leader of leadership, but we needed her to go with the other group, to make sure no-one kills anybody else.” Annabeth elbowed him. “But moving on, all of us are here so we can plan stuff in advance. Like, making sure some people are sitting away from others in case something big goes down. Like Luke. We’re hoping to keep him unharmed. But we also need to spend time together just to relax, calm down, chill. So we’re hoping to make this cabin our temporary clubhouse, if everyone agrees. It can even be called Clubhouse Apollo, if it must to get your _approval_.”

Chiron looked confused.

Apollo, however, looked appalled at the first time it was called a clubhouse, but then sighed. He didn’t mind having a clubhouse named after him, even if Percy’s tone was laced with sarcasm. Which it should be noted he understood and recognized now! Besides, he could see the benefits… “So any of us, the only ones who know about this place, can go here whenever they need a break. Because no-one will think we would dare take refuge in an absent god’s cabin.” Apollo gave another sigh. “And the Poseidon, and Athena cabins are filled with people who could wake up in the middle of the night, and notice there is someone in there that shouldn’t be. The same would go for the Aphrodite cabin when Will’s parentage comes to light, until Nico’s does as well.” He bit his lip, glancing at Percy, Annabeth, and Nico, who couldn’t sleep alone easily. At his son Will, who deserved happiness, and could calm Nico down from a nightmare. “Fine, I’ll allow the use of this cabin, but only if we are all known as Team Apollo from this point onwards.”

There were groans, but they quickly turned into quiet cheers.

Chiron cleared his throat. “Aside from the fact that Helios is a Titan, not a god, you cannot be serious about staying here without permission. You could get into serious trouble. And I have plenty of doubts that this is in any way a good or appropriate idea. If people from different cabins are sleeping together, it should not be done at camp in the very least. And why is Lester getting to decide this for everyone? As far as I am aware, he does not run anything in the camp.”

A few people winced.

“Sorry Chiron, I forgot you chose to get your memories removed.” Annabeth took over. “We invited you here, because you deserve to know where we are if one of us is missing. In the matters involving this cabin… Lester has full control, not Helios. And I suppose if you can keep it a secret, we can tell you why? We could answer your questions, as long as you don’t mind us spoiling the story for you, and you won’t repeat what we have said.”

Chiron was frowning, but he could see by looking around that he would have no authority here, although he didn’t understand why. After all, there were gods here, listening to what a demigod said. To understand better, he nodded carefully, and Artemis walked up to them.

“During the lives of these demigods, there was a god called Apollo, who you won’t remember. He was my twin brother, and god of the sun. This is his cabin. Not Helios’.”

Chiron’s eyes widened in shock, but he gave a slow nod to show he understood.

“My brother, in punishment for saving a life, was turned mortal by Father. And during this time, he passed away. During his mortal life, Father gave him the alias Lester Papadopoulos.”

“And I do not know which name I am more annoyed about, if I am to be honest.” Apollo added with a scowl. Chiron’s head snapped towards him.

“So you see, Chiron,” Artemis added, pointedly ignoring him. “Apollo has the final say in what happens in his cabin. The only reason you are in the know at all is because of the respect all the children have for you.”

A sense of pride filled him, but he pushed it aside to smile about later. “And why must some people sleep together? What is the purpose of it?”

Eyes flickered towards Nico, Percy, and Annabeth, then away.

No-one seemed willing to say it, until Nico huffed. “Are we going to skirt around the elephant in the room all summer? We won’t be able to avoid it forever. And we can ignore it a while, but we’ll have to talk about it eventually.” Nico turned to Chiron. “Annabeth, Percy, and myself all fell into Tartarus.”

Flinches happened all over the room, but Chiron audibly gasped, fear momentarily filling his eyes before filling with pity. They were only children, after all.

“No, we aren’t ready to talk about it yet, and I don’t know if we all will ever be able to. We all went through hell, literately. That’s not something you just get over. And everyone here, the three of us especially, have nightmares, and some sort of PTSD. Annabeth and Percy scream in their sleep if they aren’t by each other’s side. I’ve been told I thrash like crazy. But Percy won’t be able to sneak into the Athena cabin, and Annabeth will be able to sneak into the Poseidon cabin, but someone might wake up early and see her in Percy’s bed, which will lead to too many questions to answer. I can get away with it for a while, since I’m calm near Will when unconscious, and we’re both _Aphrodite kids_ , but not once one of us is sorted. Once we both are, it’ll be easy. Neither of our parents have other kids in this time.”

Will took this time to intervene. “Of course, he’ll be sleeping in my cabin once that happens, so we won’t be without supervision.”

“Idiot, we’ll have supervision if we stay in mine too, people were placed wrong, remember?”

Will just grinned. “It doesn’t take you long to start insulting me, huh?”

Nico huffed in response, trying to hide his smile.

Chiron cleared his throat, “So, I do have another question. Two, actually, but they are related.”

“Shoot.” Apollo said, causing groans and whooping laughter around the room.

“Three now.” The centaur amended. “Percy and Annabeth. You two are obviously close, but Percy is clearly a son of Poseidon, and Annabeth is also clearly a daughter of Athena.”

“We ended the Poseidon/Athena rivalry in our time.” Annabeth explained. “We don’t know what started it up again, but we got them to even call a truce.”

Chiron’s eyebrows were buried in his hairline at this point. “May I ask how you managed such a feat?”

Piper raised her hand. “First of all, Annabeth and I aren’t actually dating, we’re just playing off that girl’s assumptions. Annabeth and Percy are madly in love though. Their love brought Athena and Poseidon together.”

“Oh!” Percy perked up. “Speaking of, Jason. Since our girlfriends are fake-dating, did you wanna fake-date me too?”

Chiron had yet another look of confusion and shock, but everyone else just rolled their eyes, wondering why they didn’t realize it was leading up to that.

Jason perked up. “Sure, man! This’ll be so much fun!”

“Annabeth! How far am I allowed to go with Jason?”

“No lip-touching.” Annabeth was trying not to look fond. “The same rules will go for Piper and I.”

“Wait.” Apollo said. “Didn’t Piper and Jason break up?”

“Piper and Jason did what now?” Leo’s head raised from the contraption he was building.

“We did.” Piper started. “But then I found out he only was acting weird because he didn’t want me to die, so we had a fight, then got back together.”

“How much did I miss out on…” Leo muttered to himself.

“Back to the point!” Percy interrupted. “Jay, so can we do stuff like hold hands and cuddle and kiss eachother’s cheeks? I want to confuse EVERYBODY.”

“You already do all that!” Someone in the group shouted, causing laughter to go up in the room.

“True man, I’ve been told our bromance is legendary.” Jason shrugged.

“Once I went out with the two of you, and was asked out because they thought I was third-wheeling.” Annabeth added helpfully.

“Now you know how I feel!” Grover stage-whispered, making quite a few people snicker.

Chiron shook his head fondly at the group. They were from all different cabins, and yet they seemed like a closer family than modern demigods do with their actual siblings. He hoped it became more common the more time his campers spent with the old demigods, perhaps they could learn a thing or two.

After a while, however, everything settled down, and they finally remembered Chiron wasn’t done with his questions.

“Secondly, I wished to ask who Will’s and Nico’s parents are, since you stated you had no new siblings in this time. And thirdly, I wondered why everyone groaned and laughed when Le-when Apollo said _shoot_.”

“My brother and I are the twin gods of archery; he was making a pun.” Artemis answered quickly.

“A good one, though.” Apollo argued. “Will is-”

“WAIT!”

Everyone turned to look at Annabeth.

“I think we should leave introductions until the whole… _club_ is here.”

Percy looked confused. “Who else is joining the Apollo club? I mean, Reyna, Ella, and Tyson were the only others I can think of off the top of my head that would need it, and they already know everyone and their parents.”

Annabeth smirked. “Oh? I would have thought there were a bit more than that.”

“I’m so confused. Were we talking about something earlier that I forgot? You’re acting like I should know.”

“I’m not acting like you should know, I’m acting like you should have paid attention when I was talking to Nemesis not five seconds before Apollo and Jason came in.”

“I… was thinking about important things. So what’s up?”

Annabeth let out a short laugh, before shaking her head. “I don’t think you deserve to know anymore, seaweed brain.” Percy let out a noise of protest, but Annabeth held up her hand to silence him. “You’ll find out tomorrow. Now we all should get some sleep before we pass out. I declare this meeting closed. Now if you’re sleeping in your own cabin, hurry up and get back before you’re caught by the harpies.”

Everyone nodded and scattered until only Hestia, Apollo, Percy, Grover, Annabeth and Chiron remained.

“Do you mind if I sleep in your cabin, Apollo? I do not have one of my own, and it is more accommodating than the Big House. No offense, Chiron.”

“None at all, Lady Hestia. We do not often expect guests, let alone so many.”

Percy and Annabeth quickly settled down in the one bed, cuddling up to eachother while Grover chose the bed next to them. Apollo paused, looking longingly at the beds, before deciding to go back to the Zeus cabin, if only to tell Jason he could have the hidden sleeping spot, before going back to his own cabin.

Chiron watched them settle in, before going back to the Big House once he was sure they weren’t going to misbehave.

-

The next morning found them all in the eating area, calmly eating breakfast when it happened. A pure black pegasus flew in, landing on the Poseidon table.

Calm as a lake, Percy placed his fork down and swallowed. “Oh hey, Blackjack. The others almost here?”

Only those who could talk to horses could hear him responding in the affirmative.

“Cool, thanks man.” Percy grabbed a donut of the table, holding it up to the horse who ate it greedily before cantering off to join the other pegasi.

Quickly scoffing down the rest of his plate, he ran to the camp’s border.

“He hasn’t even been back a day, and he’s already causing chaos!” Aphrodite commented with a laugh, before standing and calmly following him.

It wasn’t long until everybody was at Thalia’s tree.

Of course, it wasn’t long until the waiting got to Percy, and he had to let it out somehow.

“Hey, Thals, how are you in two places at once?”

The past demigods let out laughs and groans, and Thalia got up for the sole purpose of socking Percy in the arm, making everybody laugh that time.

Poseidon looked livid, but then Percy began laughing with everybody else.

He didn’t know how any of his children could be so cordial towards a child of Zeus who just attacked them, even in jest.

The past was truly a mystery.

In the distance, the gods began to see the group approaching, but then one of them split off to race towards them at breakneck speeds. It stopped in front of Hazel, a caramel stallion with a black mane and tail. The girl let out a laugh, before holding out something for him to eat.

“Missed me, boy?”

The horse just whinnied in response, lightly headbutting her chest.

“That’s a yes!” Percy needlessly translated.

Everyone was looking at the horse with interest when the second creature decided it wanted to visit.

A wall of darkness ran into Percy, who began laughing as Mrs. O’Leary began licking his face.

Before anyone could shout, Nico whistled, and the hellhound moved off Percy to show him attention instead.

“Dude, what the Hades?”

“Viva la Pluto fuck you.”

“That’s my dog, you jerk!”

“Huh… Seems like she likes me more. Must be mine then.”

“No! She loves me most! Mrs O’Leary! Here girl!” Percy whistled, patting his thighs with both hands as if calling nothing bigger than a poodle.

The hellhound looked up, and was about to start making her way over when Annabeth whistled, so the hellhound decided to go to her.

“ANNIE!” Percy whined loudly, stamping his foot. “Stop stealing my dog!”

“Your dog…” Someone at camp practically whimpered. “That’s no dog.”

Percy turned to face them before shrugging. “Hey, it’s got four legs, drools, and barks, it’s a dog.”

“That’s a hellhound.” They squeaked, obviously in shock.

“Yeah, it’s a long story… Speaking of long stories!” He waved excitedly to the group who had arrived during the freak out over the hellhound.

They all slowly turned to look, as if in a trance, and while a few people had regained their wits enough to let out a scream, most were still silent, unable to respond.

Chiron and the gods that had their memories wiped visibly paled.

A cyclops and harpy were the first to come through, immediately surrounding Percy, who just laughed as if this was an everyday occurrence, and returned the cyclopes’ hug.

A Dracaenae, Pandai and a headless ghost were closely behind, but they couldn’t make it through the border. Annabeth quickly started giving them all permission to enter.

The Hekatonkheire had no trouble entering, and quickly moved off to the side to make room for the others.

In a trailer full of dirt, seven plants were rooted, their dryads walking beside the trailer.

But what made the gods terrified was the fact the trailer was being pulled by a giant, walking next to a titan with a skeleton kitten on his shoulder.

They didn’t remember the names of these two in particular, but they remembered them as a whole.

Annabeth let them in without any problems.

Bob went up to Nico, picking him up happily.

“Dude, when did you get a cat?” He couldn’t help but ask, his whole demeaner perking up.

“This is Small Bob, I found him when I was with Percy and Annabeth.”

He didn’t say more, he didn’t need to. Nico’s flinching showed he understood.

“Excuse me Percy, but what in the world?” Conner gestured to all of the monsters. “You sure told us everything, didn’t you?”

Percy let out an awkward chuckle, scratching the back of his neck. “There wasn’t really time…” He paused. “But to be fair, Sssssarah and Crest are Lester’s friends, not really mine. Besides, you’ll find out about the stuff I left out of my stories soon enough anyway.”

Katie elbowed Conner. “He did say he had help to… y’know. So he did tell us, he just didn’t tell us it was A GIANT AND TITAN, but it was help nonetheless.”

“Actually, I know Bob from a previous adventure.”

“Not helping.”

“Sorry.” He gave a sheepish grin before making his way up to Bob. “I did what you asked. And I’m glad you’re back.”

Bob leant down to put Nico down and pick up Percy instead, muttering something to him. Percy wrapped his arms around the titan’s neck, and if their eyes started welling up, no-one mentioned it.

Among the monsters was a bus that went unnoticed until it parked right in front of them, the doors opening.

A cleared throat got their attention from the monsters as the driver and the four from the front seats emerged.

Nico practically ran to Reyna, starting to babble in a mixture of Italian and Spanish, to which she started responding, mainly in Spanish with some Italian mixed in.

Annabeth rushed up to two blondes. One had bright streaks of purple in her hair, and the other had grey eyes. She hugged them both at once.

Percy, now on the ground, waved enthusiastically to an African American kid wearing khakis, who gave a smile in return, and the kid standing next to him waved enthusiastically back. Everyone’s eyes were automatically drawn to the mishmash of pink and green, making everyone wonder how on earth the kid was managing to pull off something that should theoretically look so horrible.

Percy quickly turned to address the campers. “Ladies and Gentleman, meet Praetor Reyna, daughter of Bellona, Sadie Kane, Magnus Chase, Carter Kane, and Alex Fierro. And if anyone can guess today who the parent of any of the last four is, I’ll be your slave for the summer. Only one guess per camper.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was because I had to finish reading both the Kane Chronicles and the Gods of Asgard series.  
> I didn't want to get anyone's character wrong, after all!


End file.
